New OptiPin Solution Offers Touch-Free Optical Pin Film Transport for the Spirit 4K / 2K / HD Family of Scanners

February 16, 2009

Source: DFT - Digital Film Technologies

OptiPin from Digital Film Technology (DFT) combines gentle film handling with the stability of pin-registered film transfer

Digital Film Technology (DFT), provider of high-end post production solutions, is announcing the Americas launch of OptiPin, a film guidance and image stabilization option for the Spirit 4K/2K/HD family of telecines and scanners.

The OptiPin (Optical Pin Registration) solution addresses the major difference between film scanning systems - the type of film transport. A capstan-driven film transport provides real-time and gentle film handling and can accommodate shrunken film or damaged perforations. Pin-registered film transports are slower and place stress on the film by forcing pins into the perforations. The new OptiPin solution merges the advantages of both types of transport methods resulting in stability that is comparable to frame-by-frame pin-registered transport with real-time, continuous motion “touch-free” capstan methods. “Touch-free” handling means that no mechanical pins touch your film, making the OptiPin option an ideal solution for new and delicate film stocks.

The OptiPin system scans the perforations and uses a special film guidance to make it less sensitive to film edge imperfections. From the perforation images motion vectors are generated to electronically stabilize the image. For this purpose the motion vectors are passed through the Spirit’s spatial image processor, which performs vertical and horizontal image positioning at an accuracy of 1/64 of an image pixel. The resulting image stability is comparable to that of pin-registered transports with the benefits of real-time capstan driven transports.

“The result of the OptiPin solution is a real-time, high performance image stabilization solution for our Spirit family of scanners,” comments Volker Massmann, Digital Film Technology Spirit Product Manager.

OptiPin addresses imperfections in the film such as bad splices, flawed edges and positional inconsistencies, without affecting scanning speed. After installation, this solution requires no user interaction, and is ideal for a multitude of applications including new OCN, archival, and restoration.

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